Crate for use with lift-fork trucks



Jan. 19, 1954 B. c. COIT, JR 2,666,552

CRATE FOR USE WITH LIFT-FORK TRUCKS Filed Feb. 5, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. 28

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Jan. 19, 1954 c co -r, JR 2,666,552

CRATE FOR USE WITH LIFT-FORK TRUCKS Filed Feb. 5, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN V EN TOR. 5UP TON C. C017, JE.

Jan. 19, 1954 B. c. corr, JR

CRATE FOR USE WITH LIFT-FORK TRUCKS 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Feb. 5, 1952 INVENTOR; 8027-04 C". C917; JP. E I ,v z z Patented Jan. 19, 1954 CRATE FOR USE WITH LIFT-FORK TRUCKS Burton G. Coit, Jr., Washington, Pa., assignor to Tri-State Engineering Company,

Washington,

Pa, a corporation of Maryland Application February 5, 1952, Serial No. 270,043

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to crates that are particularly suitable for use with lift trucks of either the fork or platform type, and comprises a modification of the structure of my application Serial No. 168,455, filed June 16, 1956 (now Patent No. 2,622,830).

One object of my invention is to provide a crate of the foldable or collapsible type, having an improved form of base structure for convenience in transporting the crate by lift trucks and particularly suitable for stacking of the crates and their bases either in a loaded or collapsed condition.

Another object of my invention is to provide an improved manner of hingedly connecting crate walls toa base and means for holding the crate walls against bulging under internal pressures.

Still another object of my invention is to provide a base of pallet-like form that serves as the bottom wall of a crate and which is of such form as to not only facilitate the aligning and stacking of the crates upon one another, but which is of great strength for a given weight of material.

A furtherobject of my invention is to provide a collapsible or ioldable crate of the character referred to that has means for latching the vertical walls in load-receiving position, in an improved manner, with the vertical walls directly supported by the base, for transmission of imposed weight to the base independently of the hinge connections.

As shown in the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a crate, showing the manner in which another crate may be stacked thereon; Fig. 2 is a detailed View of one of the latches oi 1; Fig. 3 is a bottom plan view of the structure of Fig. 1; Fig. 1 is a perspective View showing crates of a modified form, with a superposed crate folded and stacked upon another crate; Fig. 5 is a side view of a portion of the structure of Fig. 6, on the line VI-Vi of Fig. 5.

Referring first to Figs. 1 to 3, the structure comprises a pallet-like base with vertical crate walls hingedly connected thereto. The base comprises a framework having longitudinally-extending bars Ste which are welded transverse bars 9, to make a framework of generally rectangular form. These bars may be solid or tubular and are welded together at the corners of the frame, as indicated at I'll. The ends of the bars 8 are bent downwardly and outwardly as shown more clearly in Fig. 1, to form leg-like and Fig. 6 is a view taken portions and feet l2. A diagonally-extending rod or tube l3 has two diagonally-extending bars I 4 welded thereto at the center of the framework, and brace bars l5 are welded to the diagonal members l3ld, these bars all serving to form a stiif support for the bottom wall of the container.

Web plates or brace plates l6 bridge the downturned leg members at each corner of the frame and are welded thereto, and brace bars i! are welded to these plates I5 and to the leg members H, to further strengthen the legs. The plates [6 and the bars ll also are useful when stacking the crates on one another. The diagonal bars 13 and Id extend through the brace plates [6, to the extreme corners of the bottom sheet and are welded to the sheet and to the plates. Gusset plates it are welded to the undersides of these diagonal rods i i-Id and to the plates 96, and they rest upon and are welded tothe brace bars ii. The deck sheet, which serves as a bottom for the container, has transversely-extending rods or wires 2a to which are welded longitudinal rods or wires 25. The wires 2% underlie the wires 2! and are welded to the frame membersB and to the diagonal bars i3-i l. Some of the rods 2! are welded also to the bars l5.

The side walls of the crates are indicated generally'by the numerals 22 and the end walls by thenumerals 23; These vertical walls may suitably be of welded wire mesh as is the bottom. The'longitudinal walls are hinged to the deck or bottom wall by spiral hinge members Ed, at opposite longitudinal edges of the deck, and each of the end walls is hinged to a side wall by a spiral hinge 25, these hinges being at diagonallyopposite corners of the structure and each end wall being foldable on the side wall to which it is hingedly connected somewhat as indicated in Fig. 4, that will hereinafterbe described.

The end walls are detachably connected at their free edges to their respective side walls by means of latch bolts 2'! which are slidably supported in the eyes of bent rods 25 that are welded to the sides 22 at cliagonally-opposite corners of the crate. Keeper members 29 having loops formed thereon and which are welded to the end walls 23 are movable into latching position, between vertical bars til of the sidewalls, for engagement with the latch bolts 2?. Each latch bolt has a handle-like portion 3! that serves not only as a convenient means for operating the bolt, but also as a weighted member for holding the hook portion 32 of the bolt in operative position as shown in Fig. 2, to thereby reduce danger of accidental disconnection. To disengage the latch, the handle 3| is swung to its uppermost position to permit the hook 32 to be slid out of the keeper 29.

The hinges 24 prevent the side Walls from bulging at their bottoms, under the pressure of contents within the crate, and the end'walls 23 are heldagainst bulging, by hooks 33 that are welded to the end bars 9 of the base. These hooks are engageable with keeper plates 34 that are welded to the end walls, when the end walls are in their latched positions.

Referring now to s. 4, 5, I ShOVJ a crate structure which is similar to that of 1, in most respects. In this structure however, the side wall 35 at one side of the deck, whichcorra sponds to one of the side walls 22 and has an end wall 35 hinged thereto at Iii, is connected to the bottom 33 by a double spiral hinge composed of members 39 and ts that are intercom nected with one another and with the adjacent longitudinallyextending wires of the side wall 35 and the bottom 38 respectively, in or er that the side and end walls can be folded upon one another to flat positions. In folding the crate walls to collapsed condition for storing or shipment when empty, latches 27 will be disengagcd, whereupon the side wall t! is ioldedon its hinge 43 to a flat position upon the deck. Thereupon, the remote end wall 44 is folded on its hinge 455 to lie ilatwise upon the wall 42. The other side wall 3-5 will be folded down to a flatwise position about its hinge members 33-48. its associated end wall can then be folded about its hinge 3! fiatwise against the side wall, although if the hinge joint 39-42 has enough clearance, the end wall 3 5 can beiolcled under its associated side w In either case, the panels or walls 35-3i--l2- can all be folded to horizontal planes because of the extensible nature of the hinge The hinge 43 could be made of two spirals, if desired.

in all cases, the horizontal lower edges of vertical wall will rest upon the deal; and be "directly supported thereby, when the crates re set up to receive goods, thus relieving the hinges of weight.

important feature of my invention in both the structures of Figs. 1 6 is that the legs and foot arrangement permits the crates to be readily stacked upon one another, as indicated in Fig. 1, and furthermore permits stacking of the crates on one another when they are in folded or collapsed position, particularly when the, double hinge arrangenreit of Fig. 6 is can the ployed. The leg arrangements prevent the stacked crates sliding upon one another either when in a loaded condition or when collapsed for storing. The exposed sloping leg arrangement enables the operator to more easily bring the crates into stacked position. It will be understood that the crates will usually be handled by lifting trucks such as those of the liitsiork or platform type.

1 claim as my invention:

A crate having vertical Walls and a bottom wall therefor of rectangular form, an underframe to which the crate bottom wall is secured, theunderframe containing bars respectively disposed adjacent to the four edges of the bottom wall for limited distances between its corners, and the bars at substantial distances from each corner of the bottom wall, extending downwardly and laterally outward, to form legs whose lower portions are disposed outwardly of the vertical planes of the adjacent crate walls, a cross plate bridging the legs and welded thereto flatwise intermediate their upper and lower ends, at each corner of the crate, in a diagonal direction, and in position to support the corners of the underframe and to afford support on a corner of a crate upon which the base may be stacked, and horizontal extensions on the lower ends of the legs at each corner, extending at right angles to each other, along lines outwardly of the said vertical planes, and having their extremities united at a point horizontally beyond the adjacent crate corner.

BURTON C. (3011, JR.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 313,129 Tipney Mar. 3, 1335 586,122 Gale July 1.3, 18-97 957,068 La Bauve May 3, 1910 1,141,846 Spremulli et al. June 1, 1915 1,228,268 Wolston May 29, 1917 1,242,772 C'olleys Oct. 9, 1917 1,274,800 Sketteno Aug. 6, 1918 1,660,410 Beckman Feb. 28, 1923 1,726,071 Hewlett Aug. 27, 1929 1,947,933 Fante Feb. 26, 1934 1,994,664 Pfitzer Mar. 19, l 35 2,016,171 Matter et a1 Oct. 1935 2,503,208 Nydegger et al 4, 1959 2,547,624 Coit, Jr. Apr. 3,1951

FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 592,366 Great Britain Sept. 1947 

